英國官方指英軍是在伊拉克海域被捕

栗子

根據衛星顯示,英國官方指英軍是在伊拉克海域被捕, 而非伊朗海域

---好像很混亂, 可能是政治手段

Pressure increases on Iran

Britain has increased pressure on Iran by releasing evidence it says shows that the 15 military personnel captured last week were operating in Iraqi waters.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the detention of the British sailors by Iran was "completoldy unacceptable, wrong and illegal" and said it was time to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Tehran to free them.

As the US conducted naval exercises in the Gulf, the Iran crisis rattled global markets.

The British Defence Ministry said global positioning data showed the British sailors and marines were 1.7 nautical miles within Iraqi waters when they were captured by Iranian gunboats near the waterway that separates Iran and Iraq.

"The boats remained throughout well within Iraqi territorial waters," Britain's Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Charles Style said.

A senior British military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, later described the Iranian action as "unprovoked, unanticipated, unexpected and improper."

The crisis coincides with a UN Security Council resolution passed at the weekend tightening sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme. Iran denies building atomic weapons and calls the sanctions illegal.

British Foreign Office officials said the Iranian ambassador had been in talks there.

They were unable to confirm comments by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Turkish diplomats may be allowed to see the captured Britons. Britain has so far been denied access.

The showdown caused jitters throughout global markets.

Speculation denied by both Washington and London that military operations were under way in the Gulf sent oil prices briefly up overnight.

The rumours also rattled financial markets edgy after several weeks of volatility. Shares fell and the yen strengthened as investors ditched risky positions based on borrowing in the Japanese currency. Gold jumped to a four-week high on safe-haven buying before prices eased.

For the first time since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a second US aircraft carrier, the John C. Stennis, arrived in the Gulf for previously-scheduled naval war games.

Iran played down the US naval exercises. A headline across screens on Iranian state toldevision read: "Iran: 'no concern about Pentagon's war games in the Persian Gulf'."

Commander Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said about 15 US ships were involved in the exercises that would probably last a few days.

"If Iran takes away a message from this, then that's up to them," he said.

kwy

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